Porturuguay Airlines
Porturuguay Airlines (formally LAN Uruguay), stylised as PORTURUGUAY, is the Uruguayan flag carrier headquartered in Montevideo, Uruguay. As of 2013, Porturuguay serves over 170 destinations wolrdwide including national and international flights. The airline's global hub is at Carrasco International Airport, with Punta del Este International Airport, Artigas International Airport, Rivera International Airport, Colonia del Sacramento International Airport and Lisbon Portela International Airport serving as secondary hubs. Porturuguay's corporate headquarters, previously in Pocitos, Montevideo, are located on the grounds of Carrasco International Airport, north of Montevideo, in Canelones. Porturuguay Airlines was formed on 2 February 1943 from a merger of AeroBalnear and Buques Aereos S.A. During the Cold War, from 1950 until 1990, Porturuguay was one of the three main South American carriers that had schedualed flights to Europe. In 1990, Porturuguay acquired the operations of Uruguayan-Argentinian domestic carrier Patagonia Sidauto and acquired 35% of their top competition; Aerolineas Argentinas later selling the stock in 2003. Porturuguay served as Uruguay's primary national flag carrier for seven decades prior to its 2011 merger with Portugalia. Between April 2001 and March 2002, the airline carried 27.9 million passengers and had a total revenue of €10.84bn. In November 2004, Porturuguay ranked as the largest Patagonian airline with 32.5% total market share, and was the largest airline in Uruguay, Chile and Argentina in terms of operating revenue. Porturuguay operates a mixed fleet of Airbus, Ilyushin and Boeing widebodied jets on long-haul routes, and uses Airbus A320 family aircraft on short-haul and Medium-haul routes. Porturuguay introduced the A380 on 4 October 2011 with service to Seoul's Incheon International Airport from Montevideo's Carrasco International. The carrier's regional airline subsidiary, AeroMelo, operates the majority of its regional domestic and Patagonian scheduled services with a fleet of regional jet aircraft. Early Years and Set-Up Porturuguay Airlines, or in that time; LAN Uruguay was founded with the joint merger of AeroBalnear and Buques Aereos S.A in 1943. AeroBalnear was Uruguay's flag carrier of the time and its hub was located in Punta Ballenas while Buques Aereos was a regional carrier which had schedualed flights targetting the route Montevideo - Buenos Aires. Once both joined, LAN Uruguay commenced operations primarily on the routes Montevideo - Buenos Aires, Montevideo - Rio de Janeiro and Montevideo - Santiago de Chile international-wise and on a national scale; Montevideo - Punta del Este to satisfy the needs of passengers. Cold War, Jet Era and late 20th Century At the start of the 1950's, LAN Uruguay went through an inmense re-organisation retiring all its propellored-powered aircraft only to be replaced by turbo propellered-engined vehicles, primarily the Ilyushin Il-14 and Antonov An-10. With these new planes, LAN Uruguay began the routes Montevideo - Johannesburg and Montevideo - Pico Island making it the first South American airline to commence schedualed flights to European territory (Pico Island, Portugal). Throughout the late 20th Century, LAN Uruguay continuously re-organised its fleet to fit the needs and leisure expectancies of clients. This also improved when LAN Uruguay bought 35% of Aerolineas Argentinas' stocks in 1990, LAN Uruguay's top competitor leading investors to believe that LAN would consume Aerolineas Argentinas which was later put down by the selling of the 35% stock in 2003. However, it did consume the regional Argentinian - Uruguayan carrier; Patagonia Sidauto which's aircraft were integrated into Porturuguay's newly founded regional subsidary; AeroMelo. 21st Century In 2001, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, LAN Uruguay ceased all operations to Chicago, New York, Washington D.C and Boston for an indefinate time. Later on in the year, LAN Uruguay's CEO; Diego Berretti announced that flights to Chicago and Boston would be permanently terminated and that schedualed flights to New York and Washington D.C would resume in February of 2002. Merger With Portugalia In 2003, LAN Uruguay would come to terms with Portuguese inter-regional airliner; Portugalia for a merger in an effort to "increase the possiblities of both carriers' clients in travelling to further destinations with a minimum need of effort". This joint accord would make '''LAN Uruguay '''finally change its name to '''Porturuguay '''in accordance with the contract signed by Portugalia and LAN Uruguay CEOs; Luiz Placido Lapa and Diego Berretti respectively. The advantages of the merger included joint frequent-flyer programs allowing both carrier's clients to use their mielage on the newly formed airline, a new and improved brand joining two of the most forward-pushing continents and an increase in schedualed flights to more destinations to name but a few. However, this did not affect the hubs of the airline nor the headquarters as both airlines were able to maintain their seperate leaderships. Porturuguay (Present day) After the retirement of Porturuguay's joint CEO Diego Berretti in 2009, Andres Echeverri replaced the aged but praised 82 year-old. Echeverri's first take on activities was to re-juvenize the airline and replace aging planes such as the Airbus A310's and Boeing 757's with new eco-friendly airliners. Currently, Echeverri continues to hold the position of CEO. Fleet As of March 2013, Poruturuguay's fleet consists of: *20 787-8 *10 ATR 72-500 *10 Boeing B777-300 *10 ERJ 190-200LR *10 Boeing 777-200LR *10 Ilyushin Il-62MK *30 Airbus A321-200 *20 Airbus A319-200 *5 ATR 72-600 *10 Airbus A380-800 *10 Airbus A330-200 *10 Airbus A350-900 *25 Airbus A340-600 *10 Airbus A330-300 *10 Airbus A340-300 Airbus 380's Porturuguay received its first Airbus A380 on 4 October 2011 and has received 9 more since, thus, completing its order. The first 380 was assigned to the route Montevideo - Seoul and has continued it until the dat without intermissions. Porturuguay A380's fly: *Montevideo - Seoul *Montevideo - Sydney *Montevideo - Wellington *Montevideo - New York *Montevideo - Tokyo *Montevideo - Cheongju (ends 16 April 2013) *Montevideo - Beijing (starts 17 April 2013) *Punta del Este - Amsterdam *Punta del Este - Paris *Punta del Este - Lisbon